Working in the marketing world allows me to connect every day with people who share my passion for growing small businesses, forging new relationships, and contributing to the local community. My goal is always to provide clients with the same level of care, quality, and consistency that I tap into when promoting my own business.
I believe that digital marketing is one of the cornerstones to building a successful business, and that every business deserves the chance to grow, study, and evolve with a constantly changing market. It’s about more than checking off analytics benchmarks, or keeping the rent paid.
Now that you know my why, it’s time to turn the tables. Why do you do what you do? Finding the answer is one of the keys to creating online marketing that truly resonates with your audience, and to growing your Calgary business.
Start with Why: The Relationship Between Marketing, Inspiration, and Motivation
I didn’t develop this concept, but it’s something I rely on every day. It comes from a book by Simon Sinek, titled Start With Why, which provides a novel explanation for how great leaders motivate the people who follow them. If you want the short version, try this Ted Talk from Sinek himself for a brief, but detailed synopsis. The basic idea is that if you want to inspire someone to action, you can’t just tell them what you do or how you do it. Inspiration comes from showing them why you do it, first, and there are plenty of ways to incorporate this concept when marketing your business.
- One of the biggest challenges with digital marketing is that the people visiting your website always have another distraction waiting in the next browser tab. Attention-grabbing gimmicks have a short shelf life, so you need to offer real substance if you want people to stick around.
- Starting with why allows you to establish the values that drive your business, while also showing customers that they’ll receive more than a shiny product or convenient service in exchange for their money.
- The most ambitious, disruptive businesses – like Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Tesla – regularly start with why to capture the public’s attention. After all, if you’re taking the risk of starting a private spaceflight company, you better have a good reason why.
- Musk’s why of lowering the cost of spaceflight is now on the road to realization, thanks to a series of successful reusable rocket launches and landings. SpaceX also regularly contracts with governments to send supplies to the International Space Station.
The good news is that you won’t need a literal team of rocket scientists to propel your business to the top of customers’ minds. Your why is your own, and you can find it by thinking about the reasons you started your business in the first place.
- The reasons why you formed your business will become the foundation of your digital marketing for potential customers. You want to make it clear why you offer the products or services that you do, but also why the customer should select your solution over the competition.
- Starting with why is also an important part of content marketing, because the middle of a blog post is only valuable if the reader sticks around after the first paragraph. Always give the reader a good reason to stick around, by showing them why they should do so.
- Buyer personas are a great marketing tool, and an easy place to implement the idea of starting with why. Your personas should always reflect the fact that people are looking for more than a quality product, and dive deeper into how their needs match your why.
- In addition to its marketing appeal, starting with why is key to motivating employees. If you want a happy, invested staff, you need to provide motivation that goes beyond earning a paycheck.
Simon Sinek’s Start With Why is something I turn to frequently, whether I’m evaluating my own business or working to grow yours. The concept is simple, but its applications are nearly limitless. If you want to grow your business, it always pays to start with why.
Let the online marketing team at Emphasize Design help you find your why, and once we do, we can complement it with appealing web design and attractive online marketing to grow your Calgary business. We offer all of the tools you need to convert more leads, build better relationships, and close more deals.
